Point to point walkway

Churchill Park

This walk starts at one of the largest reserves in the eastern area. It offers a mixed personality, from a manicured urban park to a wild country farm - 40 hectares complete with grazing cattle. The park hosts an astonishing variety of birds as you will see and hear as you move through. Most noticeable is the harsh shriek of the Pukeko - the swamp hen - which protests loudly when disturbed.

If you wish to do a side excursion to Karaka Bay, turn left at the first track intersection and climb up to the pine trees. At low tide it is possible to walk along the silt and rock foreshore from Karaka Bay to the Glendowie Boating Club (which takes around half an hour).

Facts about the area

Churchill Park began as a farmland but was sold in the mid-1920s for use as a golf course. A lot of money went into developing the links but low-lying areas remained wet and boggy. One wit suggested that the park was "rubber-mounted" due to the vast number of golf balls sunk in the swamps. The club folded after most of its members enlisted for military service with the outbreak of the Second World War.

Karaka Bay is a quiet sandy beach that belies its importance in the history books of Auckland. It was here in 1840 that New Zealand's first Governor, William Hobson, met with local Maori chiefs to add their signatures to New Zealand's founding document - The Treaty of Waitangi. An eyewitness said it was a grand occasion with everyone dressed in their finery, waka canoes drawn up on the beach, the British cutter at anchor and a flag flying near the tent with the documents laid out on a table to be signed.

The small hill at the end of the Churchill Park track will reveal a view across to the Tamaki Estuary and the Half Moon Bay marina. In the view to the west two volcanic cones can be seen, one behind the other. The nearest one is Taylor Hill named after an early farming family. It is also known as Taurere and was the site of a large Maori pa. At the parting of her love interest Turanga, young Parehuia planted a grove of Karaka trees knowing that when they were tall he would return to her from Taranaki. In time he did with their daughter Ruahine. Parehuia foretold the return of her daughter by the actions of the kotuku (grey heron) at Waipuna. Taurere takes its name from the lament sung by Ruahine as her mother lay in state in the Karaka grove. The volcanic cone in the distance is Mt Wellington - Maungarei, which also served as a major defended pa.